When people deliver food to my house, I feel compelled to eat every bit - both to honor the gift and to avoid waste. I make cookies to use eggs that are getting old, scour my cookbook for a way to use dated sour cream, make banana bread when the bananas are fit for nothing else, and am thrilled that I found a way to use ice cream that is past its prime.
For the last several years, I've found a new way to avoid waste without it going to my waist. I leave it in the student break room in the department. Of course, I have made scotcheroos or taken chocolate milk mix for the express purpose of sharing, but usually I take food I just can't consume. Garden produce is loved, but they will eat anything. I've left ramen noodles that were nearing expiration, excess cereal that had been opened, cookies that were leftover from FHE, and even half-bottles of pop. While you can hardly take a half bottle of pop to your neighbors, when you leave it in the break room, everybody just assumes that someone else had the first glass - which of course, they did. It just wasn't the same day. Yesterday, I took a half bottle of coke, added a full bottle of Sunkist, threw it in a bowl of ice, and graced it with a stash of plastic cups. That afternoon, there was a party as a bunch of students sat around drinking pop and visiting.
My "treats" are left before students arrive - both because I get there early and because I don't want to advertise the fact that they are just getting left-overs. Thus, it isn't clear who is bringing stuff.
A few weeks ago a fellow knocked on my door asking if I was the one who brought the hot chocolate mix. He wanted to let me know how much he appreciated it. Another day, someone posted a note in the break room "Thanks Dr. Allan".
Pretty nice when you can be thanked just for being OCD.
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